£30,000 second job Tory turkey: I am refusing to vote for Christmas

Father of the House Sir Peter Tapsell’s nightmare vision of a system in which MPs are banned from coining it in with second jobs:

“I fear that if members of this house are not allowed a second job, then membership will largely be confined to those with large inheritances or those with rich spouses or to obsessive crackpots or to those who are unemployable anywhere else!”

While numerous commentators remarked that the boat had sailed on “obsessive crackpots”, it is notable that Sir Peter began his question with the words “I am not a trade union official”. Perhaps not. But he is in the employ of a Japanese bank to the tune of £30,000 per year — and has been since July 2009.